Saturday, October 29, 2016

October Book Haul & Wrap-Up!


Hello, everyone! So since I have quite a few books to show you all this month, I'm going to skip all the small talk and get right into the book haul! 

Okay, a little bit of small talk, first we'll start off with the review copies I received, some of which I already have reviews up for so just click the links!
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REVIEW COPIES
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PURCHASED BOOKS 
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Replica by Lauren Oliver -Target- $17 (Signed Edition)

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WRAP-UP
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Everyday Magic by Emily Albright (Untitled #2) -Review coming November 2nd!

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AUDIOBOOKS
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CD'S/DIGITAL ALBUMS

Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya (Deluxe Edition) -Target- $14
Mad Love by JoJo (Deluxe Edited Edition) -Google Play- $5

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I literally feel exhausted from typing all of those links and getting everything together. WHEW. As a final note, what's your favorite purchase of the month of October? I would seriously love to know! Read on, bookworms! See you in the next chapter!

Friday, October 28, 2016

Review: The Lost Eye Of The Serpent by Jeremy Phillips + GIVEAWAY! (CLOSED)


Hello, everyone! Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Lost Eye Of The Serpent by Jeremy Phillips hosted by YA Bound Book Tours so a huge thank you to them! I'm such a sucker for mystery novels and when I read the synopsis of this one, I just knew I had to read it ASAP.

I was sent an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour.

Down below is my review, all the links to where you can buy the book for your own enjoyment, the author links and lastly, the GIVEAWAY! Be sure to enter and if you love finding new mystery novels to get sucked into, continue reading. Enjoy!
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Rating: PG
Genre: Mystery, Historical
Score: 3.5 stars
Page Count: 244
Book #1 of the Rose Delacroix Files series
Publisher: Limitless Publishing
Published: August 6th, 2016

It may sound crazy, but Jonathan Delacroix is certain his sister Rose really is Sherlock Holmes...

Girls are not detectives. But in the summer of 1893, in the small western town of Hope Springs, Rose Delacroix is bound and determined to prove them wrong. When the famous Emerald Serpent Jewels are stolen from the Delacroix family hotel and the blame lands solely on her older brother Bill, Rose recruits Jonathan as her Watson-like counterpart to solve the case.

Proving your brother innocent is difficult when the evidence keeps stacking up against him...

Before Rose and Jonathan can properly start their investigation, another robbery is committed. The rusty revolver purported to have once belonged to Wild Bill Hickock has been stolen from the general store and found hidden amongst her brother's belongings. With Bill in jail, and the owner of the Serpent Jewels planning to sue the Delacroix hotel, Rose knows she has to find a lead, and soon.

Rating:
PROS:
1. I was sucked into this book as soon as I saw the cover since it looked to be mysterious and I just love a good mystery novel with an equally intriguing cover. Not to mention this book has characters that are very huge fans of Sherlock Holmes and since I love Sherlock myself, I was sold. I'm so happy to review this book for you all so let's get on with the review!

2. I really love the characters in this book for a few reasons. One being that I thought Rose was a very independent young lady that didn't want the white picket fence life for herself and instead wanted to be a great detective like Sherlock Holmes. With the help of her twin brother Jon, they were able to live that dream for a bit as the story played out. I liked Jon because he was a bit quieter but was nonetheless determined to clear his brother's name and find the real criminal. They were both such smart kids and very clever, not to mention risk taking and resourceful in their investigation for the truth.

3. I thought the pacing was nice and the writing was great. The town the characters live in is a very old town and a small one at that. It was the type of town where news gets around before you even finish forming a thought about it. It was interesting to get some history on the town even though I felt like there wasn't quite enough for me personally. It isn't a fast-paced mystery novel but I thought it was fast enough to keep the story moving without dragging too much or feeling a bit boring.

4. Overall, I just enjoyed this book and I liked where it was heading. I think it's a fun story about two kids conducting their own investigation and searching for the real criminal and piecing together why their brother was the target and who would want to hurt the family. The book reminded me a bit of Theodore Boone which is one of my favorite series so I think anyone who loves a mystery would really enjoy this book.

The reason why I didn't give this book a five-star rating is because while I really liked the story, I just felt like there wasn't enough of a surprise element and it wasn't as suspenseful as I personally like. It didn't have me on the edge of my seat and while the story was nicely written, I didn't find myself overly surprised as the ''plot thickened" as they say when new evidence was discovered to strengthen the case against Rose and Jon's brother being the criminal the town believes he is. It's a nice story, has a lot of potential and I think it's a promising start to the series. 

You Can Purchase The Book Here:
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About The Author:



My first novel will be available on September 8th, 2015. It's a Young Adult fiction story called: My Buddhist Christmas.





Author Links:
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Follow The Tour!
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Thursday, October 27, 2016

The Review Chain: The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

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Rating: PG
Genre: Historical Fiction
Score: ❤❤❤❤
Page Count: 336
Stand Alone
Publisher: Scribner
Published: December 9th, 2014

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent and Day After Night, comes an unforgettable coming-of-age novel about family ties and values, friendship and feminism told through the eyes of a young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century.

Addie Baum is The Boston Girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents who were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie's intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can't imagine - a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love.

Eighty-five-year-old Addie tells the story of her life to her twenty-two-year-old granddaughter, who has asked her "How did you get to be the woman you are today?" She begins in 1915, the year she found her voice and made friends who would help shape the course of her life. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, Addie recalls her adventures with compassion for the naïve girl she was and a wicked sense of humor.

Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Anita Diamant's previous novels bestsellers, The Boston Girl is a moving portrait of one woman’s complicated life in twentieth-century America, and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world.


Rating:
PROS: 
1. I've been wanting to read this book ever since it was first released! When I had the chance to review it, I was so eager to get my hands on the book. Special thanks to Simon & Schuster as well as The Review Chain for the paperback review copy! I love books that are set in the fifties on back and since this book follows a young woman trying to find her way in the world in a time when things were so unsure in the United States, I just had to pick it up. Here's the review:

2. I adored Addie, our main character, as she tells her granddaughter about her life as a young woman growing up during WWI and The Great Depression as well as the Flu Breakout. They were very difficult times for millions of people and Addie saw and experienced it all while also trying to figure out who she was, make a good life for herself, falling in love, and learning that life comes with its fair share of trials. She was a very smart girl and strong-willed as well as independent. I thought she was a strong female lead that didn't pretend things were perfectly fine when they obviously weren't. She went through many things that I thought added to her character growth such as grief, self-blame, loss, frustration and even a sense of feeling lost. I thought she was the ideal character to represent a lot of the emotional things a lot of people deal with on a daily basis and was very relatable.

3. This book is very much character driven and I wouldn't recommend it for readers who love a good plot. But if you're a reader who loves a book that's character driven then totally check this one out. It was so nice to see Addie, her friends, and her family go through the years as life changed both for them and the people around them. Family was a very important thing to Addie and the reoccurring theme throughout the book really highlighted that as her story progressed. It also had themes of friendship, how to stand up for yourself even when it's scary and how falling in love isn't easy but that doesn't mean that life isn't worth living.

4. Overall, I just really loved this book. I also loved how Addie struggles with real-life struggles such as staying true to herself and how important her religion and heritage was to her and her family. This book wasn't preachy or anything! It just shows that being a young Jewish woman growing up in America came with its own struggles as her and her family had to adapt to a new way of living while also staying true to where they came from. Addie wanted a different life for herself than what her parents wanted for her and she had to learn how to pave her own way while also wanting to make them proud. This book is just so real in so many ways that I think it's a great book to have on your shelf if you ever need some inspiration.

I didn't give this book a five-star rating because while this book is great for young readers since it's very much a coming of age story, I'm just not sure a lot of older readers would enjoy this one. Addie is an 85-year-old woman who begins telling her story that begins when she was a teenager and I myself would get a little frustrated and even bothered by some of the things she said or did. I really enjoyed this book but would recommend it to younger readers who will appreciate it more.

You Can Purchase The Book Here:
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About The Author:

Anita is best-known for her first novel, THE RED TENT, which was published in 1997 and won the 2001 Booksense Book of the Year Award. Based on the biblical story of Dinah, THE RED TENT became a word-of-mouth bestseller in the US and overseas, where it has been published in more than 25 countries. 

Three other novels followed: GOOD HARBOR, THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN and, DAY AFTER NIGHT.

Anita has also written six non-fiction guides to contemporary Jewish life, which have become classic reference books: THE NEW JEWISH WEDDING, THE JEWISH BABY BOOK, LIVING A JEWISH LIFE, CHOOSING A JEWISH LIFE, HOW TO RAISE A JEWISH CHILD, and SAYING KADDISH.. 

An award-winning journalist, Diamant's articles have appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, Real Simple, Parenting Magazine, Hadassah, Reform Judaism, Boston Magazine and Yankee Magazine.PITCHING MY TENT, a collection personal essays, is drawn from twenty years worth of newspaper and magazine columns. 

Author Links:
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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Book Blitz: Fractured Eden by Steven Gossington

Hello, everyone! Today is a quick little post to let you guys know about another pretty cool book that I'm actually tempted to check out myself! I just love a good mystery or thriller either in book or movie form so this one seems to be totally up my alley! I hope you guys enjoy reading about this book and maybe end up purchasing a copy for yourself. 

Special thanks to Sage's Blog Tours for hosting! Now you may read onward!

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Genre: Thriller

When a doctor loses everything and is forced to start over, he finds himself in a strange town filled with addiction and mental illness.

Dr. Aaron Rovsing, Family Practice Physician, is fired from his medical practice in Connecticut because of alleged incompetence. After he flees and starts over in a town in East Texas, he discovers that things are not as they first appear, and soon Aaron must combat the deranged and addicted minds of the townspeople.

Events take an even deadlier turn when he finds himself the next chosen victim of a serial killer who plans to add the doctor to his collection of skeletons. In this town of insanity and with a serial killer waiting to strike, how can Aaron manage to stay sane . . . and alive?
 

You Can Purchase The Book Here:
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About The Author:



Steven Gossington is an emergency room physician with over 30 years of patient care experience. He was an academic professor in emergency medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City for 11 years, and he published 20 book chapters and medical articles of original research. 

His enjoyment of mystery and suspense fiction and his love of writing led to his novel "Fractured Eden," a psychological suspense story in which he draws upon his extensive experience with mentally ill emergency room patients. This novel and his future fiction can be found at http://www.StevenGossington.com




Author Links:
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